Physical Activity was measured using an adaptation of the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire. Participants reported how many times during an average week they participated in mild (i.e., takes minimal effort), moderate (i.e., increases your heart and breathing rate a little), and strenuous activity (i.e., caused one's heart to beat rapidly) for at least 30 minutes at a time.

Goal Specificity and Difficulty. Four items were created for each concept: (1) "The goals I set for number times I will [eat F&V or exercise] in a week are," (2) "the goals I set for the type of [F&V or exercise] I will [eat or do] in a week are," (3) "the goals I set for the [amount or duration] of [F&V or exercise] I get in a week are," and (4) "the goals I set for intensity of my exercise sessions within a week are."

The primary aim of this feasibility study is to determine if a theory-based lifestyle intervention consisting of telephone counseling is associated with improvements in physical activity and dietary intake.

Detailed Description

Goal setting has become an integral part of physical activity and dietary interventions; however, few studies have examined the theoretical constructs that drive goal-setting theory. To address the limitations and gaps in the literature, we designed an 8-week health behavior intervention for a racially and ethnically diverse sample of older adults. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether older adults randomized to a goal-setting intervention for physical activity or fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake would make significant improvements in physical activity or F&V intake. The secondary aim of this study was to determine whether participating in goal-setting interventions was associated with changes in theoretical constructs related to goal-setting. We hypothesized that older adults assigned to the physical activity condition would significantly increase metabolic minutes (MET-minutes) of physical activity from baseline to follow-up and that participants assigned to the F&V intake condition would significantly increase mean servings of F&V. In addition, we hypothesized that mean scores of goal specificity, difficulty, effort, commitment, persistence, barrier self-efficacy, and task self-efficacy would significantly increase from baseline to follow-up for both groups.